Surprise Blue-Ribbon Winners
More than 700 cheese professionals descended on Montreal earlier this month for the annual conference of the American Cheese Society.
The Canadian venue -- a first for this gathering -- created extra headaches for conference organizers, who had to figure out how to get hundreds of cheeses across the border for the prestigious competition.
Working for months with a savvy Canadian importer, UPS and Canadian customs officials, the competition committee hatched a plan to consolidate all the U.S. entries in a single trailer in Plattsburgh, N.Y., and then truck them to Montreal with the appropriate documents. I can't imagine the reams of paperwork this required.
But by all accounts, the complicated scheme unfolded beautifully, and all the cheeses crossed into Quebec without problem. In fact, the number of competition entries handily surpassed last year's record, with almost 1,700 cheeses vying for awards.
Not surprisingly, Canada garnered many more ribbons than it typically does, a reflection of the lower barrier to entry for Canadian cheeses this year.
In fact, that nation's cheesemakers took two of the top four spots: second prize in a tie for Lindsay Bandaged Cheddar and third prize for Louis d'Or, a washed-rind cow's milk cheese. Both were outstanding cheeses, but we won't be seeing them in the UnitedStates due to import restrictions.
California cheesemakers did well, with 12 cheeses taking first place, although Wisconsin and Quebec outperformed them. The state's blue-ribbon winners are Marin French Cheese Co. Peppercorn Brie; Spring Hill Jersey Cheese Dry Jack; Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Toma; Central Coast Creamery goat cheddar; Fiscalini Cheese Scamorza; Karoun Dairies Basket Goat Feta and Labne; Belfiore Cheese Co. naturally smoked mozzarella; Laura Chenel's chevre and cabecou; Sierra Nevada Cheese Co. Capretta plain goat yogurt; and Meyenberg European-style goat butter.
The talk of the conference, post-competition, was the surprising showing by Kraft Foods, which earned ribbons one second place and two third places in two cheddar categories.
Does this dairy behemoth have any place in an organization devoted to supporting North America's artisan and specialty cheese industry? Longtime competition committee chair David Grotenstein wrote in an e-mail that he didn't recall Kraft entering in the past, but the judging is open to all licensed North American dairies, large and small.
My strongest impression from the competition was that new creameries were trouncing veterans. Several of the blue-ribbon cheeses in important categories came from producers I had never heard of, like Cricket Creek Farm in Massachusetts and Doe Run Dairy in Pennsylvania.
They beat more established entrants who had won in the past, which can only be a healthy sign for this growing industry. The next generation of talent is teeing up and promising to deliver better cheeses than ever.
